CFT 412 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Traumatic Brain Injury, Family Therapy, Nuclear Family
15 May 2018
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M&F Chapter 14: Stress, Abuse and Family Problems
Intimacy,
Strengths and
Diversity
● Variability and diversity in how people define problems and
difficulties
○ Effects when they reach out for help or support
● Intimacy, strengths and diversity all play a part in how people deal
with family problems
○ Close relationships provide resiliency and strength
Cross-Cultural
Perspectives on
Couple and
Family Stress
● All stressors either begin or end up in the family
● Families from all cultural groups experience couple and family
stresses
● To manage their stress, couples and families tend to first use
internal resource before external resources
○ Inside the family system before outside family systems
● In many cultures, extended family is considered “family” rather
than nuclear family
○ In families with strong extended-family structures, most
resources come from extended rather than nuclear
● All couples and families have some internal strengths for managing
stress in their systems
What We Know
About Stress
● Stress: the daily pressure we all encounter
○ Physiological stress: body’s harmful reaction to whatever
happens
○ Psychological stress: appraising threat, resulting in
emotional reaction
○ Sociocultural stress: disturbance in social systems
● Coping with Stress: what we do when we identify something as
potentially harmful or stressful
○ Can respond in a variety of ways but successful coping is
vital to healthy life
Stress and Life Events
● Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale
○ 43 personal, family, financial, and occupational life
stressors, 11 out of top 14 are family issues
● Stress has been found to cause a variety of health problems
○ Negative Life Events have a correlation to breast cancer
○ Chronic Work Stressors can cause Cardiovascular Disease
○ Stress increases chances of getting the common cold and
influenza
Top 5 Stressors for Couples
● Dating couples:
○ Job, feeling emotionally upset, inadequate income, partner,
job security
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● Engaged couples:
○ Job, financial concerns, cost of wedding, lack of exercise,
lack of sleep
● Married couples: spouse, job, feeling emotionally upset, inadequate
income, house projects undone
Five Tips for Dealing with Stress in Your Relationship
● Share what is most stressing each of you
● Prioritize what stressor to tackle first
● Develop a plan with specific goals to manage the stress together
● Use your communication and relationship skills
● Support and praise each other for progress
ABC-X Family Crisis Model
● A = the stressor event
● B = the family’s crisis-meeting resources
● C = the definition the family gives to the event
● X = the crisis
Life As A Roller Coaster
● After a crisis, the family never returns to normal life, they must
create a new normal
○ Must recreate happiness after despair
A Roller Coaster Course of Adjustment
● After 9/11, a massive despair, the US had to rebuild and recover
after the trauma
○ US will never be able to return to how it was before 9/11
Family Systems Change Before and After the 9/11 Attacks
● Many families that were flexible became very enmeshed while
searching for family members
○ The families went through many systems during 9/11 and
after while family members were healing
● Changes plotted on Couple and Family Map
○ Under stress couples and families often move in direction of
becoming more extreme on flexibility and cohesion
○ Communication always increases during a stressful event
○ Once stress has abated, couples and families usually return
to similar, but rarely same, systems
○ Couples and families typically often require a minimum of 6
months to a year to adjust to major stress
○ Balanced couple and family systems tend to become
unbalanced during stress and return to another balanced
system about a year later
War and Its
Effect on
Families
● Deployment affects families because it is determined by the
government and the family has no control
○ When they return, many family members have trauma
Couples
● The stress that couples feel when one partner is deployed can create
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mental health issues that interfere with marital well-being
○ Depression, anxiety and sleep disorders, increases with
length of deployment
● Returning members can have posttraumatic stress disorders and
traumatic brain injury
○ Has lead to more divorce in military families
● Stressors and Challenges related to deployment:
○ Stress: repeated and extended family separations, dealing
with injuries, difficulty communicating
○ Selection: military attracts and selects people with pre-
existing factors for divorce
■ Younger age, lower levels of education, divorced
parents, abuse victims, substance abuse, lack of
emotional response, depression, PTSD, violence
Children
● Children of military members experience higher:
○ Depression, acting out, poor academic performance,
discipline problems at home
● Adolescence struggle more because they understand why their
parent is gone
○ Younger kids don’t understand and therefore don’t stress
● Generally found that children’s ability to cope largely depends on
at-home parent’s adjustment
○ If one parent is gone and one is depressed, the child suffers
the loss of two parents
Role of Community in Supporting Military Families
● Several developed social programs to help military families deal
with stress
○ Army Child and Youth Services has partnered with National
4-H, to provide youth development on bases
○ Operation: Military Kids supports military children whether
they live on base or not
○ Essential Life Skills for Military Families: focuses on
relational and practical skills
● Many local communities create their own formal and informal
support systems for military families
○ Help with home repairs, child care, household bills, and
other needs
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and War
● Symptoms of PTSD cause stress and disruptions in marriage and
families post-war
○ Can be a result of combat or other traumatic events
● Soldiers are exposed to urban fighting, suicide bombers and guerilla
tactics
○ When consistent and over long periods of time, predictor of
later mental health problems
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Document Summary
M&f chapter 14: stress, abuse and family problems. Variability and diversity in how people define problems and difficulties. Effects when they reach out for help or support. Intimacy, strengths and diversity all play a part in how people deal with family problems. All stressors either begin or end up in the family. Families from all cultural groups experience couple and family stresses. To manage their stress, couples and families tend to first use internal resource before external resources. Inside the family system before outside family systems. In many cultures, extended family is considered family rather than nuclear family. In families with strong extended-family structures, most resources come from extended rather than nuclear. All couples and families have some internal strengths for managing stress in their systems. Stress: the daily pressure we all encounter. Physiological stress: body"s harmful reaction to whatever happens. Psychological stress: appraising threat, resulting in emotional reaction.
